THE ACOUSMATIC THEATER HOUR'S Unfair and Incomplete Year-End Top Ten Nationwide Theatrical Performances That We Saw:
In no particular order (except that in which we remembered them), and hopelessly incomplete, here are Jason G and Karinne's Top Ten Best Theatrical Performances. There's other stuff that no doubt deserves to be on here, but we probably didn't see it! Also, we left off anything we were personally involved in 'cause that's tacky!!
1) "Crime or Emergency" by Sibyl Kempson, at Soho Rep, NYC. A wacky adventure starring Ms. Kempson and Mike Iveson, complete with torch song versions of Springsteen.
2) "No Dice" by Nature Theater of Oklahoma, at Soho Rep, NYC. Totally indescribable, four hours long, with sandwiches. We could have had two sandwiches and sat there for twice as long.
3) "Stunning," by David Adjmi, directed by Anne Kaufmann, Woolly Mammoth Theater, Washington, DC (coming soon to Lincoln Center's LCT space!! Look out for it!). A crazy comedy about Sephardic Jews in Eastern Brooklyn and the maid who turns out to be a lapsed academic - OR IS SHE?!
4) "If You See Something, Say Something," written and performed by Mike Daisey, directed by Jean-Michele Gregory, Woolly Mammoth Theater, Washington, DC/The Public Theater, NYC. The history of the A-Bomb and the National Security apparatus has never been so fun! Complete with real radioactive glass from Los Alamos.
5) "Room for Cream," by the Theater of the Two-Headed Calf's Dyke Division, LaMama, NYC. A live, weekly lesbian soap opera. Need we say more????
6) "Blasted," by Sarah Kane, directed by Sarah Benson, Soho Rep, NYC. This is that British play from the 1990s with all the rape and murder where the guy eats the other guys eyeballs and the second guy eats the baby and the set blows up. But actually it's really really good.
7) "Off the Hozzle," by Lumberob (aka Rob Erickson), Dixon Place, NYC. A piece of properly built bumpy grinder beatbox and fairly advanced golf swing theory. Rob has been developing the Lumberob show for overeight years now as a solo artist and in collaboration with Jad Fair, Kevin Blechdom, Half Japanese, Adult Rodeo, and the Nature Theater Of Oklahoma.
8) "Untitled Mars" written and directed by Jay Scheib, PS 122, NYC. Like 2001 and Solaris (the Tarkovsky one) but on stage!!
9) "Church," written and directed by Young Jean Lee, The Public Theater, NYC. A real live church service for self-hating secular hipsters! Includes stories about unicorns.
10) "Hello Failure," by Kristen Kosmas directed by Ken Rus Schmoll, PS 122, NYC. A tale of unrequited love, mostly for Civil War-era submarine inventor Horace Healey.
WEBHAMSTER HENRY'S TOP 10 IMAGINARY RECORDINGS OF 2008:
Have a gander here.
TODD-O-PHONIC TODD's Todd-O-Phonic Ten:
1. Lulu-Something To Shout About (Rev-Ola)
2. Ponderosa Stomp 2008
3. She And Him-Volume One (Merge)
4. The Mets missing the playoffs again
5. Little Johnny And The Silvertones-"Rock 'Til The End Of Time" (Norton 7") 6.Trashmen live at Purcell's Lounge (Green Bay)
7. The Vaselines live @ Maxwell's & Southpaw
8. The Move Anthology 1968-1972 (Salvo)
9. Condo Fucks live @ Magnetic Field
10. Family Guy episode with "Surfin' Bird"
JEFFREY DAVISON (Shrunken Planet)
Some Favorites from 2008 (alphabetical order):
Brethren of the Free Spirit - All Things Are From Him (Audiomer)
Helena Espvall & Masaki Batoh - s/t (Drag City)
Johnny Flynn - A Larum (Lost Highway)
Ron Franklin - s/t (Alive)
Jolie Holland - The Living and the Dead (Anti)
C Joynes - God Feeds the Ravens (Bo Weavil)
Sharron Kraus - The Foxs Wedding (Durtro/Jnana)
Cian Nugent - Childhood, Christian Lies & Slaughter (Incunabulum)
Jack Rose - s/t (Tequila Sunrise)
Micah Blue Smaldone - Red River (Immune)
The North Sea - Archaic Spines (A Silent Place)
Mia Doi Todd - Gea (City Zen)
Cath & Phil Tyler - Dumb Supper (No-Fi)
Peter Walker - Echo Of My Soul (Tompkins Square)
James Yorkston - When the Haar Rolls In (Domino)
Some Favorite Reissues:
Steve Mann - Live At The Ash Grove (Bella Roma Music)
James Blackshaw - Sunshrine (Tompkins Square)
Yves, Serge and Victor - s/t (Guerssen)
Ilyas Ahmed - Between Two Skies/Toward the Night (Digitalis)
In Gowan Ring - The Twin Trees (Shayo)
To see other WFMU Staff year end lists, go here!
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